#Education sector is experiencing a paradigm shift through disruption in teaching delivery methods during this #COVID period which necessitates #teachers, #trainers and #educational institutions to adopt to the emerging #technologies and adjust to the new norms.
Background of Education Sector:
India has made huge strides in increasing enrolment at elementary level (Grades 1 to 8) due to the SarvaShikshaAbhiyaan programme (SSA) and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (2009) which makes education a fundamental right for all children aged 6 to 14. But, is that giving a true picture of this sector? In today’s time, the overall growth of a child can be accomplished by the combination of the following key factors:
1. Social & Emotional Development (Team Work, Culture, Discipline, Emotional Intelligence, etc.)
2. Cognitive Development (By building problem-solving, memory, decision making and logical reasoning,)
3. Physical Health (First Aid, Exercise & Yoga, Interest in one of the Sports)
4. Creative Thinking (Arts, Music, Photography, Dance, etc.)
5. Language Skills (In-depth knowledge and comprehension of at least one language)
6. Numerical Ability (Mathematics and Statistics)
7. Technology Adoption (Practical approach towards adoption of IT skills)
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2019, suggested that 76% of primary teachers are not proficient in grade 5 competencies and 70% of upper primary teachers struggle with grade 8 competencies. Currently, 6.6 lakh teachers lack even the paper qualifications required for the job. National Education Policy (#NEP) that was released in early June 2019 makes a very clear statement about the “severe learning crisis” this is primarily due to dearth of good teachers in India. The National Curriculum Framework (#NCF, 2005) highlighted that: ‘the quality and extent of learner achievement are determined primarily by teacher #competence, sensitivity and teacher motivation’. It has been proved time and again that good teaching leads to better student outcomes and that teachers are a vital factor contributing to better student achievement. A Teacher Eligibility Test (#TET) was introduced in 2010 to ensure that even after teachers have obtained professional qualifications, they are screened to ensure that they have requisite knowledge before joining the teaching force. How this test is being effectively implemented is a big question. When the nation is recruiting so many new teachers and investing almost 75% of the education budget on salaries, it is critical to determine what teacher characteristics contribute towards improved student learning outcomes. Bihar has the highest proportion of untrained teachers, both at the elementary and secondary level, followed by West Bengal.
Only 13% of teachers in government schools and 12% in private schools held secondary or senior secondary qualifications. Only 15% of government school children get their notebooks checked. Majority of the teachers just think about their own domain knowledge and hardly adopt any collaborative or inter-disciplinary approach towards designing a project report. Teachers with teaching qualifications (DiplEd/ BEd/MEd) do not achieve better results for their students compared with teachers with general BA or MA degrees. This is the reason that vast majority of the qualified teachers have failed the Teacher Eligibility Test. We should, therefore develop a system to attract best talent to enter the teaching profession and we must establish a rigorous set of procedures and requirements that prospective teachers must satisfy before entering this profession. There could be a probationary period in which teachers receive good induction and mentoring by an experienced teacher. A robust appraisal system needs to be in place for teachers before they receive a permanent contract and promotion.
Emerging Learning Trends:
With the given constraints of physical lock-down and restricted school visits, many serious students and their parents have started exploring learning resources available on the internet. They exposed to a huge library of content or videos on each concept and topic which are available for free or paid services with reasonable fees. At the same time, they also got an opportunity to compare and experience the quality of teaching and demonstration by the current school teachers through platforms like #Zoom, #GoogleEducation, #WhatsApp, etc. Many students have started exploring #YouTube videos for building their concepts. This could be a big threat for those schools who rely on their flashy infrastructure and do not pay much emphasis of quality of education. Such infrastructure is of no meaning during the COVID period and may be if it became new normal in future, then become irrelevant. Such institutions have to start thinking strategically about quickly adopting to technology and practical or project based blend of teaching methods in order to survive. In such a scenario, these institution will not have option but to design a right teaching method with the blend of online and offline mode, mix of content creation and content curation, hybrid of synchronous and asynchronous way of learning and teaching. With a rapid increase of mobile internet users in India and penetration of smart phone in Indian households, technology is enabling ubiquitous access and personalization of education even in the remotest parts of the country. Early adopts to #digital #learning #technology will be the winners in long run and therefore, it should be a strategic priority of every educational institutions.
Emerging Teaching Trends:
Many of the teacher believes that online schooling has allowed students to be much more responsible and take ownership of their learning. Once both teachers and students become comfortable with the Virtual Instructor Led Training (#vILT) sessions, many challenges during or post-crisis can be addressed in the future.
There are teachers who are sharing lesson wise weekly tasks like assignments, videos & other reference materials to students. They are conducting live session using platform where students can join during the schedule given earlier. Through this, they shares documents, presents all materials and communicates through chat box during the meet. Apart from this, they records the sessions which give the students opportunity to review the sessions later. Whereas there are other teachers who are recording their voice and sharing with students on closed WhatsApp group. Majority of them have shown the discomfort of being glued to the computers from their living room.
Open-source digital learning solutions and Learning Management Systems (#LMS) with basic customization of #Moodle or #Totara should be adopted by educational institutions so that teachers can conduct part of the teaching online. The #DIKSHA platform, with reach across all states in India, can be further strengthened to ensure accessibility of learning to the students. Teacher or subject matter experts should be trained on the digital platform to create and curate content as and when required. There are plenty of excellent free content available on the internet. Teachers and trainers should search, identify and classify such content and organise them linked to each learning objective for the learners to build their strong conceptual foundation. They should design and develop assessment questions to ensure the confirmation of the learner’s understanding of each concept. Unlike in past, new technological innovations need to be fine-tuned according to education quality and teaching-learning practices so that students and teachers can leverage the innovative features like online classes, virtual instructor led training, flipped learning, gamification in learning and many more. They should also be trained on how to monitor the trainee’s course advancement, assessment results virtually and most importantly the ways to deal with their behaviour remotely.
Teachers, are the pillar of not only our educational institutions but society building and growth too, hence Indian educational bodies should seriously start identifying their best teachers and start investing in their development too. During these orientation program, the administration must ensure that the teachers possesses a range of skills such as physical and virtual classroom management skills, instructional design methods, know-how to curate content and reference material, know how to use MS Office and Adobe Design software, course designing and authoring skills using best of the technology and software available, school administration, best pedagogy for their content, and most importantly, understanding student’s psychology.
Therefore, we need to thoroughly train teachers on basic technology adoptions, methods of using learning and training platform effectively. Virtual Learning Transformation has gone from ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’. They should be well versed with the use of blend of synchronous and asynchronous mode for their teaching process. CBSE is conducting Technology-enabled teacher development programs/training to 35,000 teachers through 15 CBSE’s Centre of Excellence (COE’s) to provide advantages of convenience, scalability, and adaptability.
The educational institutions should explore the best teaching methods and find out ways of incorporating the future technologies like #AI (Artificial Intelligence), #ML (Machine Learning), #AR (Augmented Reality), #VR (Virtual Reality), Mixed Reality (#MR) and #IoT (Internet of Things), #BlockChain concepts in designing and developing their #training #ecosystem. They should, therefore, seriously reconsider their investment on teacher training and also on current delivery and pedagogical methods by seamlessly integrating classroom learning with digital learning modes to build a unified learning system.